BettyJoyce Nash | "Everybody Here Is Kin"

Read Between the Lines

Molly talks with author BettyJoyce Nash about her book, "Everybody Here Is Kin".

About "Everybody Here Is Kin"

On Boneyard Island, Georgia, where everyone's weirdly kin, 13-year-old Lucille is marooned when her mother goes AWOL with an old flame, leaving Lucille with only her father's ashes, two half-siblings, and Will, the misanthropic manager of the island's only motel. The abandonment kills hope of Lucille's promised snorkeling trip to the Florida Reef before ocean heat kills the coral and illusions she's harbored about her mother's sanity. Everybody Here Is Kin explores the lives of this sinking family, the island community, and fears of exposing wounds, old and new, when natural disaster forces them to trust, and depend on, strangers.

About BettyJoyce Nash

BettyJoyce's first novel—Everybody Here is Kin—will be released September 2023.

A native of South Carolina, BettyJoyce Nash writes short stories, novels, and journalism. Her writing appears in literary journals such as North Dakota Quarterly and Across the Margin as well as newspapers and magazines, including the Christian Science Monitor. Her essays have aired on the NPR affiliate, WVTF. Her work has been recognized with fellowships from MacDowell, The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, The Tyrone Guthrie Center in Ireland, and The Ragdale Foundation, among others.

She earned an MS in journalism from Northwestern University and an MFA in fiction from Queens University of Charlotte; she's taught writing at the University of Richmond and the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail. She currently teaches at WriterHouse in Charlottesville, VA.